The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure which may not constitute prior art.
Land-based vehicles, e.g., over-the-road (OTR) vehicles such as tractor semi-trailer rigs, represent an abundant resource of potential energy that is presently not being recovered. Specifically, in the course of travel, the deceleration of such vehicles is accomplished by a frictional load imposed on the power train either by a braking system or through back driving the transmission and engine of the vehicle. Thus, the energy utilized to decelerate the vehicle is either lost through heat dissipation or through non-productive operation of the vehicle's motor.
The opportunity for energy recovery becomes significant when one considers the number of OTR vehicles which travel the roads of the United States in a given day. With the multitude of trucks traveling the interstates to transport goods to various destinations, a significant source of energy recovery could be provided by a power generating system which efficiently and effectively recovers and stores this otherwise lost energy. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to provide a useable power generating system for land-based vehicles such as an OTR vehicle for recovery and storage of potential energy.